disaster clean up

[photokid]

i spent a month in mount zion national park volunteering, photographing, and converting analog images to digital. so i come back from my trip lastnight head strait to my tank and see that everything has gone to hell. i had a friend do my feeding and supposed water changes and top offs. looking to the damage i have hair algae thats out of control, most of lost my zoa frags, and have diatoms. first things first i need to get the water back in check turn the skimmer back on and do a water change. but what the best way to kill off the hair algae? does

 

[olds350racer]

For me, it was physically scrubbing rock and ALOT of daily water changes. Good luck with it... hair algae is a pain.

 

[wbholwell]

IMO, having a regular friend watch your tank always leads to disaster. At least all you lost was some zoas. I agree with the above post, & you might want to run carbon if you're not already, as well as a polyfilter, and maybe add some turbo snails.

 

[flyingarmy]

Sea Hare....clean it right up!

 

[photokid]

the turbos arnt touching the stuff nor are the crabs. my tank was made up of zoas so this is a set back. oh well i wanted to do a little aqua scaping anyways.

 

[kevin]

What is your phosphate level? If you get that down, it should kill the hair algae.

 

[lifestudent]

flyingarmy;57495 wrote: Sea Hare....clean it right up!

:yes: Get or borrow a sea hare from someone (maybe FlyingArmy). Within the last week on the ARC Web site, someone posted one beiing available.

Also, definitely resume skimming so that you get a wet skimmate. Once things are under control you can go to a dry skimmate.

Good Luck!

Bob

 

[budsreef]

I had a very bad problem with it for quite a while and first worked on all the issues I thought created it and then just did a lot of water changes and spent about an hour during each change manually plucking it out. While it was long none of the snails or emeral crab would touch it but right after each plucking session I would put all the snails on the rock I just cleaned off and they would stay there a while getting the small stuff before moving on. Hopefully your's was just brought on by too much feeding and not running the skimmer so if that is the cause getting that back under control will help but I'd still pluck as much as you can.

The problem with adding another critter that specializes in eating it is that once its done its job, its reward is starving. Unless you can just borrow one to help out and then give it back.

 

[kappaknight]

I left for my wedding for a week and came back to two tanks with water 2 inches lower than normal. Two of my new tangs died (a couple of days after I got back) due to starvation but overall, everything else was still alive even with the changed salinity. *Sigh*

 

[xyzpdq0121]

I ALWAYS recommend a Sally Lightfoot crab for hail algae... Works like a charm and is safe once the algae is gone!!!

 

[showtime305]

kappaknight;57536 wrote: I left for my wedding for a week and came back to two tanks with water 2 inches lower than normal. Two of my new tangs died (a couple of days after I got back) due to starvation but overall, everything else was still alive even with the changed salinity. *Sigh*

I though you had a ATO unit. I would have watch it for you.